Despite the tightened security situation in Israel, protests against the policies of Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing religious government continue. This was announced by the organizers of the protest actions that have been going on for three months.
Thousands of people demonstrated again on Saturday evening in the coastal city of Tel Aviv and in other cities against the controversial judicial reform. They lit candles and observed a minute’s silence to commemorate the victims of two attacks. In Tel Aviv, protesters dressed in black uniforms marched with a banner reading “Dictator’s Rage Brigades,” apparently alluding to the National Guard to be given to far-right Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
According to rescue workers, an Italian tourist was killed and seven other tourists between the ages of 17 and 74 injured in an attack near the Tel Aviv beach promenade on Friday evening. Two Israeli sisters were killed and their mother critically injured in an attack in the West Bank on Friday morning. The alleged Palestinian perpetrators had shot from a car at the women, who were also traveling in a vehicle, and were then able to escape.
The situation in Israel has been extremely tense for more than three months: there are constant protests against a planned judicial reform by the right-wing religious government, which experts believe threatens the very foundations of democracy. “We will continue the fight against the dictatorship as if there were no war on terror,” said the organizers. At the same time, the security forces will be supported “as if there were no war against the dictatorship.” The youngest victims should also be remembered at the rally in Tel Aviv.
According to the hospital, those injured in the incident in Tel Aviv all came from Italy and Great Britain. Police said the gunman drove his car at high speed on the beach bike path and hit several people. The car overturned. According to police, the driver was shot dead by a police officer as he was about to pull out a gun.
However, Israeli media reported that it was a dummy weapon. According to police information, the assassin was an Arab from Kfar Kasem in northern Israel.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the “cowardly attack” and pledged her solidarity with the State of Israel, according to her office in Rome. Meloni is also in contact with the Israeli authorities to follow the latest developments. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani expressed his “firm condemnation of terrorism” in a tweet. His Israeli colleague Eli Cohen expressed his condolences over the phone with Tajani.
EU foreign policy chief Borrell condemns attacks
Just last month, one man was killed and two others injured in an attack by a Palestinian in downtown Tel Aviv. In addition, there was heavy rocket fire from Lebanon on Israel on Thursday. Israel blamed the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas for the attacks and then launched aerial attacks on militant Palestinian bases in the neighboring country to the north and in the Gaza Strip. Numerous rockets were also fired at Israel from the Palestinian territory on the Mediterranean Sea.
The Federal Foreign Office in Berlin wrote on Twitter: “We are concerned about the situation in the Middle East and are appalled by the terrorist attacks on Passover, which killed three people. Nothing can justify terror and violence.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also condemned the attacks in Tel Aviv and the West Bank, as well as the rocket attacks from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. “The EU expresses its total condemnation of these acts of violence,” he said of the attacks. “This has to stop.” He also condemned the actions of the Israeli police on the Temple Mount (Al-Haram al-Sharif) in Jerusalem. Israel has the right to defend itself, but any response must be proportionate. Borrell called on everyone involved to exercise maximum restraint “to prevent further escalation and to ensure calm during the holidays”.